Dlagnev places fifth at World Championships

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Tervel Dlagnev's quest for a second World medal came up short.

Dlagnev placed fifth at the World Wrestling Championships in freestyle wrestling at 120 kilos/264.5 pounds on Tuesday night at Papp Laszlo Sports Arena.

Dlagnev was unable to generate any offense in a 3-0 loss to Taha Akgul of Turkey in the bronze-medal bout.

Akgul, ranked No. 1 in the World, scored a first-period passivity point and a second-period takedown to prevail.

"I just got to get better," Dlagnev said. "It's hard to put my finger on it. I felt like I was wrestling well, but I didn't have a lot in the tank in the semis and I don't know if it carried over."

Dlagnev wrestled for a bronze medal at a World or Olympic competition for the fourth time in the past five years. He won a World bronze medal in 2009 before placing fifth in the 2011 Worlds and 2012 Olympics.

Dlagnev won his first three matches Tuesday before falling to Ukraine's Alen Zaseev 6-2 in the semifinals. Zaseev led 1-0 before shooting in for a takedown early in the second period and gaining additional exposure points to take control.

Dlagnev opened with a quick 9-0 technical fall over Antonie Jaoude of Brazil in the first round. He followed with an 8-0 technical fall over Nobuyoshi Arakida of Japan in the second round.

Dlagnev turned in a huge quarterfinal win when he knocked off Iran's Komeil Ghasemi by a 7-0 technical fall. Ghasemi had beaten Dlagnev three straight times in the last 13 months, including the bronze-match at the 2012 Olympics.

Reece Humphrey came out strong, but fell short in his quest to win a medal at 60 kilos/132 pounds. He finished eighth.

Humphrey dropped a wild 9-8 decision to Iran's Masoud Esmailpourjouybari in the quarterfinals. Humphrey led 5-0 late in the first period before the Iranian stormed back. Down 8-7, Esmailpourjouybari shot in on a leg attack and finished for a takedown with four seconds left in the match to prevail.

The Iranian won a gold medal at the 2013 World Cup. He was seventh in the 2012 Olympics.

Humphrey was eliminated when the Iranian lost to Russia's Bekhan Goigereev in the semifinals. Esmailpourjouybari needed to reach the finals to pull Humphrey back into medal contention in the repechage.

Humphrey opened by locking up Ukraine's Mykola Aivazian of Ukraine and throwing him to record a first-period fall in 1 minute, 37 seconds. Humphrey trailed 3-0 after being thrown to his back, but quickly regrouped to gain the dramatic fall.

Humphrey followed with a 7-0 win over Erhan Bakir of Turkey. Bakir is a two-time Cadet World champion.

Humphrey also reached the quarterfinal round of the World Championships in 2011.

"When I got the draw, I knew it wasn't a great draw," Humphrey said. "To be the champion you've got to beat everybody. The Iranian had beaten me before and I knew it was a huge match for me. I was ready and I came out strong. We got into a crazy match. I was in position, but he kept pushing and it just didn't happen for me today."

Keith Gavin went 1-1 in his first World Championships at 84 kilos/185 pounds.

Gavin opened with a 9-2 win over Michael Tsotselashvili of Israel before falling to Georgia's Dato Marsagishvili 8-0 in the second round. Gavin was eliminated when Marsagishvili lost in the third round and fell short of the finals.

Marsagishvili, ranked No. 1 in the World, is a past Olympic and World bronze medalist.

"Obviously, it didn't go the way I wanted it to," Gavin said. "I tried to step over his gut wrench, but it didn't happen and that was the beginning of the end."

Puerto Rico's Franklin Gomez, a member of the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club, won his first two matches before falling to Russia's Bekhan Goigereev 13-5 in the quarterfinals at 60 kilos/132 pounds.

Gomez fell one match short of the bronze-medal match. He came back to win a match in the repechage before falling 6-4 to Armenia's Artur Arakelyan. Gomez, a 2009 NCAA champion for Michigan State, was second in the 2011 Worlds.

Gatsalov won his fifth World title and first at 120 after bumping up from 96 kilos/211.5 pounds. He also owns an Olympic gold medal.

The U.S. is still looking for its first freestyle medal at the 2013 Worlds with just one weight class remaining in that style.

Day 3 of the seven-day event is set for Wednesday in Budapest. Olympic and World champion Jordan Burroughs will take the mat in freestyle for Team USA along with World bronze medalist Alyssa Lampe and Junior World champion Victoria Anthony.